At the half USA 1 - Germany 1

Final USA 2-4 Germany
We stunk the place up pretty much...except of course for Mathis.

Mathis did play well but don't forget to give Keller his due. In spite of the four goals given up he played as well as a keeper can play!!! I hate to say this but the US can plan for n early exit from Korea/Japan if we don't shore up the defense. Eddie Pope needs 2 years of competition in the Serie A or something comparable to truly be a top shelf international defender. Agoos is tough but getting old. Cherundolo is undersized and Regis is too inconsistent. I'm not sold on Llamosa or Sanneh either. Arena is an intelligent coach. I have to believe he is holding back on his true intentions for the back 4. Burhalter has shown some promise. Here's hoping we can let Reyna, Mathis, Donovan, etc. be creative in the attack while having confidence in our defenders!

Oh yeah, I forgot about Keller...coulda been 8-2 if it werent for him. Really our defense isnt that bad, they just got run over by those 6'3" 200lb German tanks. McBride was the only guy who could compete physically with them and he wasnt there, so go figure. Personally I think we should still be able to make the round of 16 in the WC, though. Portugal is a minimize-damage situtation at best, and Poland has a top class keeper, but we should be able to go through anyways.

Portugal will know to take Mathis out of the match, not necessarily by injuring him, but by keeping him consistently covered and rendering him unable to produce. He's had at least one point in what, the last 7 international games he's started? Obviously he is the main threat. We will have to make use of other options, like Donovan, if we want to win that game. Our defense has proven somewhat unreliable; an off game by any one of the defenders will prove costly. I think that we can make it out of our group, but we will have to earn every inch. Go USA!